Honiton: Overwhelming majority of local residents vote to keep supporting The Beehive

Most people in Honiton wish to see Town Council continue to financially support the Honiton Community Company (who lease The Beehive) until the end of the lease, allowing the organisation to regain its financial independence.

Honiton Town Council own The Beehive and since 2015 it has been leased to Honiton Community Complex (HCC) to operate as a community venue. Covid and other cost increases have had an impact and in February 2022 HCC gave notice to end the lease.

In order to keep HCC as a tenant, HTC agreed to underwrite HCC's costs on a three-month rolling basis, for a maximum for 12 months, and HCC withdrew the notice.

On 26 July 2022 Honiton Town Council carried out a public consultation. Members of the public were invited to vote for their preference on how The Beehive should be financially managed in the future. Members of the council were available to answer questions outside Mackarness Hall and people could also vote online.

The provisional results were published in August and the full results have now been released.

The results

Members of the public were asked to rank the following options in order of preference:

The options were to continue to support the HCC (the Honiton Community Complex) until the end of its lease (option 1), run The Beehive as a charity (option 2), The Beehive is owned by the council but leased, managed by and run as a commercial organisation (option 3) and finally sell The Beehive (option 4).

Honiton Town Council received 694 valid responses. Of these, 364 were from residents of Honiton CP (Civil Parish). Of the other 316 respondents who live outside of Honiton, 239 live in small villages or other rural locations and 77 live in larger villages, towns or cities.

Option 1 was selected by 74% of all respondents as their first choice.

Of those whose first choice was Option 1, 40% live in Honiton Civil Parish and 60% outside. When those who voted for Option 2 as their first choice are added to these figures, 90% of all respondents, including 90% of those who live in Honiton, wish to see the Beehive continue to be run by a charity.

Option 3 and Option 4 were chosen by approximately 3% of all respondents as their first choice.

A statement from Honiton Town Council said: "There is a clear mandate from the respondents to the public consultation, for Honiton Town Councillors to continue to support Honiton Community Complex running the Beehive up to the end of its lease in 2025.

"HTC Councillors have been doing this on a month-by-month basis. The council may continue to financially support/underwrite HCC until the end of its lease of the Beehive (September 2025) or earlier to make time for HCC to manage its financial performance back to full independence (with HTC's £10K service charge) if possible.

Read more:

Honiton: The Beehive looks to secure its future